1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capture apparatus, such as an electronic camera, configured to record a captured image including a still image and a moving image in a recording medium such as a semiconductor memory, a hard disk or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some devices using a recording medium refer to a number of free clusters in acquiring a free space of the recording medium. Generally, the number of free clusters is calculated from the number of unused clusters which is acquired from file management information in a file system. A file system managing a recording medium of high capacity, for example, 2 GB or more, processes large amounts of data each time in acquiring the number of free clusters. Thus, in some devices, the number of free clusters is included in advance in the file management information. If the device employs a file system which records the number of free clusters, the number of free clusters can be acquired from recorded information.
A method of counting the number of free clusters, hereinafter referred to as a “calculation method”, takes time in counting the number of free clusters. As a result, when the calculation method is applied to an image capture apparatus such as an electronic camera, the following problems can occur. (1) If the image capture apparatus cannot finish start-up processing until a free space of a recording medium is acquired, an image cannot be captured until the free space is calculated using the number of free clusters. (2) If the image capture apparatus can capture images even if a free space in the recording medium is not acquired, the image capture apparatus can start capturing immediately. However, the captured image may not be recorded in the recording medium until the free space is calculated using the number of free clusters.
On the other hand, a method referring to the number of free clusters recorded in the file management information, hereinafter referred to as a “reference method”, is advantageous in that the number of free clusters can be acquired quickly. However, if the number of free clusters recorded in the file management information is incorrect, then a correct free space cannot be calculated. This may cause a significant error such as a recording failure of the captured image in the recording medium. It is possible that the number of free clusters recorded in the file management information is not correct in a case, for example, where one recording medium is shared by a plurality of devices.